Colonel Edwin Vose Sumner, leader of a Kansas Territory cavalry regiment, corresponded primarily with Territorial Governer Wilson Shannon and the Secretary of War's Adjutant General regarding military action taken in response to the Sack of Lawrence and the subsequent retaliatory skirmishes between free state and proslavery men. Sumner maintained that safety in the Territory could not be guaranteed "unless the posse of the U.S. Marshal was dismissed" in favor of local troops. Fearing civil war, Sumner and his correspondents discussed the convening of the Topeka Legislature, which they dubbed "bogus".

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